Last modified: 05 Aug 2021 13:04
This course is your opportunity to study four of the most influential and gripping texts of world literature. We begin in the oral culture of ancient Greece, with the Iliad's stark meditation on war and death, and the Odyssey's consolatory reflections on divine justice, poetry and love. In imperial Rome, we see the genre transformed into a monument to political power in Virgil's Aeneid, then thrown into disarray by Ovid's irreverent anti-epic, the Metamorphoses. We end by considering some of the ways these texts have been exploited and adapted across the intervening centuries, in poetry and prose, art and film.
| Study Type | Undergraduate | Level | 3 |
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| Session | First Sub Session | Credit Points | 30 credits (15 ECTS credits) |
| Campus | Aberdeen | Sustained Study | No |
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On this course we will read (in English translation) what are arguably the most influential texts of world literature, and among the most exciting tales ever told. We begin in ancient Greece with Homer's two contrasting epics, composed orally before writing reached Europe—the Iliad's dark vision of human mortality, and the Odyssey's meditation on the enchantment of story-telling. Moving to classical Rome, we shall see how Virgil transformed the genre into a monument to imperial power, and how it is thrown into disarray by Ovid's fantastical and irreverent epic of endless change. We end by considering some of the ways these foundational texts have been exploited, imitated and adapted across the centuries, in literature, art and film.
Information on contact teaching time is available from the course guide.
| Assessment Type | Summative | Weighting | 10 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assessment Weeks | Feedback Weeks | |||
| Feedback |
Oral and written feedback on all work will be delivered in sufficient time to be able to be used by students to improve their work, and it will be appropriate and relevant to helping students understand where they have both gained and lost marks, and how to improve their work. |
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| Knowledge Level | Thinking Skill | Outcome |
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| Assessment Type | Summative | Weighting | 40 | |
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| Assessment Weeks | Feedback Weeks | |||
| Feedback |
Oral and written feedback on all work will be delivered in sufficient time to be able to be used by students to improve their work, and it will be appropriate and relevant to helping students understand where they have both gained and lost marks, and how to improve their work. |
Word Count | 2500 | |
| Knowledge Level | Thinking Skill | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
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| Assessment Type | Summative | Weighting | 50 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assessment Weeks | Feedback Weeks | |||
| Feedback |
Oral and written feedback on all work will be delivered in sufficient time to be able to be used by students to improve their work, and it will be appropriate and relevant to helping students understand where they have both gained and lost marks, and how to improve their work. |
Word Count | 2500 | |
| Knowledge Level | Thinking Skill | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
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There are no assessments for this course.
| Assessment Type | Summative | Weighting | 100 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assessment Weeks | Feedback Weeks | |||
| Feedback | Word Count | 3000 | ||
| Knowledge Level | Thinking Skill | Outcome |
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| Knowledge Level | Thinking Skill | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Procedural | Analyse | Developed powers of literary analysis and critical argument |
| Conceptual | Understand | Will be familiar with some of the most important and influential texts of the Western tradition. |
| Reflection | Evaluate | Will have a more rounded and nuanced understanding of the diversity and complexity of a genre frequently caricatured as monologistic. |
| Reflection | Analyse | Equipped to discuss the range of ways in which these texts respond to and help to shape fundamental social, political and religious ideas of their periods |
| Reflection | Understand | Will have acquired knowledge of key concepts concerning the relation between aesthetic form and historical context, and have been introduced to different ways of thinking about intertextuality |
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